Dada 5000 looks back on Bellator fight with Kimbo Slice: “I died twice in that ring”

Street-fighting legend Dada 5000 looked back on his Bellator fight with the late Kimbo Slice, admitting that “I died twice in that ring.”

Dada 5000 fought Kimbo Silce at Bellator 149 in February 2016 in Houston, Texas. Slice scored the TKO win in the third round, but as soon as the fight was over, Dada 5000 was put on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital after suffering cardiac arrest during the fight. Dada 5000 has spoken about the incident in the past, but now, over five years later, he has delved into what happened to him in more detail during a recent interview with Jimmy Smith of Sirius XM’s Fight Nation.

🥊 "I just refused to stop fighting … that fight could have went any way." — @therealdada5000 remembers his bout w/ Kimbo Slice on "The Celebrity of Combat Sports" w/ @jimmysmithmma 🔊

👂Full show here and FREE via the SXM app –> https://t.co/LcR4nAMedU pic.twitter.com/c27CopXOgK

— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) August 4, 2021

“When I went down, my heart stopped, you know, a heart stops for five minutes. Then they brought me back. Then it stopped again for eight. So I had no heartbeat for 13 minutes, you know, and the hospital, you know, they was literally that ready to give up on me, but I was inside of a homeless stage, but I heard everything and, you know, I just love one fight to start another fight,” Dada 5000 said (h/t MiddleEasy.) “So at that point I was fighting for my life. You know what I’m saying? And I refuse, I refuse to lay down, you know? And, uh, I broke through, you know, thanks to God, and my will to pull through. Everything shut down and my heart was the last one to go, but I just refused to stop fighting. I swung until I had nothing left, that fight could have went anyway, because I had him on the ground on all fours in one round, I just didn’t have it in me to finish it.”

Fortunately for Dada 5000, he did not become one of the rare MMA fighters to be killed in the cage. Sadly, though, his opponent Kimbo Slice passed away four months later after the fight with Dada 5000 after suffering from heart failure. He was 42 years old.